False air

Germans love compound words. “Falschluft” or “Nebenluft” are two excellent examples. My assumption is that mechanics in the UK (actually anywhere else in the world) are much more skilled and don’t make stupid mistakes when fitting a carburetor. This would explain why there isn’t even an english – actually no – Wiki article in any other language “Falschluft” Well, you might already guess why this concerns me – Yepp, right: there is an issue with Weber I just fitted on the Morgan.

By now I don’t even blink anymore when it comes to taking the carburetor off the car. I remember that when I started working on the MG two years back – I was really concerned to work on the (back then) dual HS4 – because, you know: Never touch a running system. These days are gone – I am still by no means an expert, but I do have a much better understanding of the fuel and ignition system nowadays. While doing a very short test drive again, the engine ran rough and backfired a couple of times. Assuming that the ignition timing is correct (as the car just got back from a technical inspection at a garage) I double checked the Weber another time.

Something I should have done during the rebuild of the Weber is to sand down the bottom side of the carb to make sure no “false air” gets through the gasket. I had 400er grid sandpaper but needed a super flat surface. A quick check with my wife: “Honey, do you still want our wedding picture on the windowsill???” – provided the glass of a picture frame to get the job done. Back at the garage I also added heat resistant silicon sealant on both gaskets bakelite spacer beneath the heatshield. But this change didn’t fix the problem. The next logical thing was to check the distributor and timing.

I turned the crankshaft to TDC (top-dead-center) by making sure the marker on the front pulley is pointing to the 0° mark on the engine. Next, I removed the distributor cap, and I immediately realized that I dizzy is incorrectly installed because the rotor wasn’t pointing up as expected. But when I took it out another German compound word cause the next issues: We call it the “Sollbruchstelle”…. see below – now I need a new distributor…

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